Main interests

To study the prevalence of psychiatric disorders in general and specific populations, determine the degree of disability associated with those disorders, study their natural history, and identify possible factors that may be associated with that history. We are also interested in studying the use of health services by the people who suffer from psychiatric disorders.

Research Areas

The main goals of the group are to continue our work in the development of epidemiological and services research in the area of mental health and to strengthen our activities in the study of the interaction of psychiatric disorders and somatic disorders. We will work together with the other groups to strengthen our methodological capacity in epidemiology and we will collaborate with them in studies involving a psychiatric component, namely in the “EpiReumaPt” Project and the “ENVIRH” Study. The strategy to strengthen our capacity in epidemiological research includes the integration in the group of new researchers with expertise in specific aspects of epidemiology and the development of training activities in this area for PhD students and junior researchers of the group.

In 2011 -2012 we will complete the analysis of the data of the national psychiatric survey, start the publication of the national results and continue collaborating in the publication of the international results. We will also complete the genetic component of the study. Our plan is to cross the mental disorders diagnosis with genetic factors and social factors to investigate the influence of these different factors in the aetiology and evolution of the disorders. We expect to complete the tasks included in the Work Package 2 (Dissemination of the results) of the study “The EU Contribution to the World Mental Health (WMH) Surveys Initiative” and to collaborate with our international partners in the publications on the burden of mental disorders and gender and mental disorders in Europe.

We also expect to complete data analysis and present the first results of the study “Development of a European Measure of Best Practice for People with Long Term Mental Illness in Institutional Care (DEMoB.inc) and disseminate the toolkit Quirck developed by this study. We submitted two proposals to continue the work developed in the national survey and the DEMOB.inc study. If these proposals are accepted we will develop a new epidemiological study to investigate the impact of the economic crisis on the prevalence of mental disorders in the population as well as a study to investigate the effectiveness of an intervention to improve mental health care for people with severe mental disorders.

Regarding the interaction between psychiatric disorders and somatic disorders and treatments, we expect to complete the study on depression, anxiety and chemotherapy in patients with cancer recently initiated, as well as to investigate the interaction of depression and rheumatic diseases in the context of the “EpiReumaPt” Project. We plan to strengthen our participation in the activities of the World Mental Health Survey Initiative network, namely the publication of papers on the international results of the study and the development of new studies (a proposal on depression in primary care was recently submitted to the NIMH).

We also will continue our collaboration with the European network that is developing the project on the burden of mental disorders in Europe funded by SANCO and will participate in a proposal on the treatment of disorders related with alcohol abuse. Finally, one of us (JMCA) will continue participating in the ROAMER Project, and European project aiming at the development of a road map for mental health research in Europe.

Projects

National psychiatric survey: Study of prevalence of mental disorders, risk factors, social and economic burden, and utilization of services.The field work of the survey was completed in 2009. This included the training of a large team with more than 150 interviewers, the creation of a representative sample of the Portuguese population, the completion of 3870 interviews, and the collection of DNA in a subsample of the population.

The EU Contribution to the World Mental Health (WMH) SurveysInitiative: It will allow to study three different aspects of mental health problems in Europe (the burden of mental disorders, the gender perspective of mental disorders, inequalities and mental disorders), based on data from 10 countries.
Factors associated to depression, anxiety and quality of life in the course of chemotherapy: To study the prevence of depression and anxiety ans assess quality of life of patients in chemotherapy.